SCMP report on Cornavirus outbreak

The SCMP is a Hong Kong newspaper and has a long report, including the time line, of the outbreak of the Corona virus in Wuhan China.

read the whole thing.

As a whole, China responded to the epidemic well, and the massive shut down of many cities has slowed the spread, but their clamp down on information early in the epidemic (i.e. Dec and early Jan), and the fact they denied that person to person infections occurred  resulted in a delay at putting contacts (including medical personnel) into isolation etc. was one reason the disease spread to outside cities and the world.\\
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update: NEJM editorial on the corona virus.

Despite the number of deaths associated with Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 appears to have a lower case fatality rate than either SARS-CoV or Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

 translation: not as bad as SARS.

Compromised respiratory status on admission (the primary driver of disease severity) was associated with worse outcomes...

translation: If you are chronically ill already you will get a lot sicker than healthy people and have a higher chance of dying. 

We found a lower case fatality rate (1.4%) than the rate that was recently reportedly,1,12 probably because of the difference in sample sizes and case inclusion criteria....

Translation: Because they only tested sick people at first, the rate looked high. But this ignores that a lot of folks weren't sick enough to get tested: Meaning that as they test more mild cases, they will find the rate of dying is a lot lower than the early cases suggested. 

Since patients who were mildly ill and who did not seek medical attention were not included in our study, the case fatality rate in a real-world scenario might be even lower.

Early isolation, early diagnosis, and early management might have collectively contributed to the reduction in mortality in Guangdong.

translation: by isolating people, fewer people caught it. 

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cultural explanation of Asian wet markets.

I should mention that here in Asia, a "wet" market is the open air meat/fish/ produce market, where independent sellers have meat etc. on open display.

this is in contrast to American style supermarkets, where the meat is wrapped in cellophane, or behind glass in a refrigerated box where the vendor will take out the meat, cut it up, weigh it and then wrap it for you.

and a "dry market" is the area of the palengke/open market where independent vendors sell dry goods. This might include dry groceries (i.e. canned goods, noodles) but also includes clothing, school supplies, soap/shampoo/ plastic goods, etc.

the poor and bargain hunters go to the Palengke: the next step up is the small stores that sell things, and for the middle class, we now have American style supermarkets.


MikeBustos has a video about Philippine palengkes: The "wet market" of selling meat is seen at 0.41.